


The Son of Plastic Man

by MaroonLeoInvestedCrybaby



Series: Shazam & Plastic Man [5]
Category: DCU (Comics), DCU Offspring, Justice League - All Media Types, Plastic Man (Comics), Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Comedy, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Secret Identity Reveals, Slight Uncle-Nephew Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaroonLeoInvestedCrybaby/pseuds/MaroonLeoInvestedCrybaby
Summary: Captain Marvel and Plastic Man are out on a mission and luckily intervene before a crowd of people are hurt or worse, killed, but in the aftermath, Captain Marvel swears there is someone missing. Little does Billy know just how closely related to Plastic Man this particular person really is.
Series: Shazam & Plastic Man [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923154
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	The Son of Plastic Man

**Author's Note:**

> If any of you don't know who Luke O'Brian is, well, neither did I until I started doing research on Plastic Man for these fics and hearing about his existence in the comics. He is basically a son that Plastic Man was afraid to be a father to and didn't really become a part of his life until he was around ten years old. The instant I heard about Luke, I knew I had to use him in a fic with Plastic Man and Billy Batson. I will definitely be using Luke in future fics with these two and exploring the relationship that Plastic Man has with both his own son and Billy who has become like a nephew to him. Anyways, onto the fic!

Captain Marvel and Plastic Man were placed on patrol since crime had been quiet the past few days and the two heroes decided on walking down the streets in Billy’s hometown. The two hadn’t seen any criminals or suspicious activity for about three hours now and Captain Marvel was beginning to get restless.

Marvel sighed and kicked some loose rubble with one of his golden boots.

“Ugh, this is so boring.”

Plastic Man smirked over at Captain Marvel.

“Kid, you’re gonna appreciate this quiet once you get older.”

Captain Marvel lightly punched Plastic Man and teasingly smiled.

“Are you saying that you’re an old man, Plas?”

Plastic Man laughed in disbelief at the kid’s jab and tried to get him in a headlock.

“You better watch yourself, Cap! I know a thing or two about pulling pranks on people who aren’t expecting it.”

Captain Marvel laughed out loud at Plastic Man’s attempts to get back at him and a warm smile appeared on the rubbery hero’s face when he heard the kid’s laughter.

Interrupting the moment, a beam of light, probably a laser beam, shot towards a nearby building and an explosion shook the ground beneath the heroes while the two of them immediately stopped messing around to see where the boom had originated from. Captain Marvel’s eyes wandered up towards a nearby office building and he could see a thick cloud of black smoke lingering near the top of it. Flames were erupting out of the top floor windows and right before their eyes, an enormous chunk of the building broke off and began plummeting down to the street below across from where the heroes were standing.

Captain Marvel looked over at the sidewalk on the other side of the street and saw a crowd of people staring up at the burning office building and that most of them were running away. He saw that they were right below where the rubble was raining down and flew over to try and get them away from the danger. Without warning, a huge cracking sound filled the air and Captain Marvel looked up to see that the top floor of the office building had become unhinged and teetered back and forth, the hero anxiously held his breath and waited. In a sickening moment, the top of the building fell over and hurled itself down to the ground below.

As the building chunk plunged downwards towards him, Captain Marvel’s eyes happened to spot a young man with black hair, perhaps an older teenager, who was still standing nearby and Marvel yelled at him.

“Get to safety!”

The teenager look startled for moment but before Captain Marvel could do anything, the crumbling building was plummeting closer and closer and the hero had to focus on stopping it. As the chunk of the top floor got sickeningly close to the sidewalk where Captain Marvel and the lone teenager were standing, the hero decided to fly towards the building and try to slow it down. He flew upwards and pressed his hand against the underside of the building and his muscles strained against the weight. As he continued pushing, the building’s descent slowed down and Captain Marvel managed to guide the chunk onto the sidewalk and place it without causing a rippling effect through the city.

As he placed the building down on the clear sidewalk, Captain Marvel struggled to catch his breath and looked around. Even though he stopped the destruction from hurting innocent people, something was still bothering him.

Over on the other side of the street, Plastic Man made sure that all the people were in a safe area far way from the office building that was destroyed, and gathering them into groups to get medical attention from the ambulance that had just pulled up. Luckily, no one seemed injured except for a few scrapes from small pieces of rubble and in Plastic Man’s opinion, that was better than dealing with serious injuries.

After he was finished taking care of all the civilians, the rubbery hero stretched his way over to Captain Marvel, who was still standing near the building chunk he had stopped from crushing the people. The crimson hero’s voice sounded slightly unnerved.

“Plas?”

“Yeah, Cap?”

Captain Marvel stared over at the crowd of people surrounding the ambulance and his eyes flickered all over them, as if he was searching for someone. Plastic Man placed a hand on Marvel’s shoulder, trying to get his attention.

“What’s the matter, kid?”

“I think someone is missing from the crowd. There was a guy with black hair that was going to get crushed by the building, and I stopped it but when I looked to make sure he was ok, I didn’t see him anywhere.”

Plastic Man wrapped his arm around Captain Marvel’s shoulders and tried to reassure him.

“I’m sure he probably got medical attention and then left, Cap. You must have just missed him.”

Captain Marvel dragged his attention away from the crowd and looked over at Plastic Man. His eyes were filled with uncertainty and the rubbery hero could tell that Billy was worried he failed to save someone.

“Are you sure, Plas?”

Plastic Man side-hugged Captain Marvel and offered him a gleaming smile.

“I’m sure, kid. You did amazing catching that building when you did.”

Captain Marvel seemed to finally relax and let Plastic Man lead him away from the destruction and back on their patrol route.

In an alleyway near the sight, there was a trashcan sitting against the brick wall. After a moment, the lid of the garbage can shifted into a long tube of something rubbery and then collected into a puddle on the concrete ground. The puddle stayed still as a person walking their dog passed by, but as they disappeared around the corner, the pool of liquid grew taller and then took on the form of a young man with black hair. He walked to the entrance of the alleyway and watched as both Plastic Man and Captain Marvel continued on their patrol of the city.

That was a close one.  
———————————————————————————————————————  
After that patrol, Plastic Man said goodbye to Captain Marvel and headed back to his apartment. He pulled out his keys, unlocked the door, and walked into the small but cozy home he shared with one other person: His son, Luke. 

The two had started living together fairly recently and while Plastic Man was busy doing hero work, Luke stayed at home and attended high school whenever he could. Their relationship was…complicated, considering that Plastic Man had been afraid of being a father to a kid that potentially could inherit his powers but, he wanted to make up for that and so when the stretchy hero put out the offer of living with him, Luke accepted with one condition: That his father didn’t tell anyone that he had a son.

Plastic Man waited in the door entrance, expecting Luke to pop out and say hello but when that didn’t happen, the elastic hero called out.

“Luke? Are you home?”

When the rubbery hero didn’t get a response, a smirk spread across Plastic Man’s face. He snuck into the kitchen and looked around, trying to notice anything that seemed out of place. There were dirty dishes in the sink sitting in soapy water, a coffee pot that was still half full, and packages of snacks piled on the countertops. Plastic Man picked up on the cereal boxes and gave it a quick shake. It didn’t so much breathe as he intently stared at it and after a few seconds, he put it back down.

The stretchy hero continued his search and entered the living room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Luke’s game console was where it always was with a controller perched on top, the couch had impressions in the places where the father and son frequently sat, and the tv remote was on the coffee table.

Plastic Man rubbed the back of his head, stumped as to where his son was hiding. He picked up the tv remote and started twiddling around with it as he thought. Nothing about it seemed unusual but as he was absentmindedly pressing the buttons, he swore he could feel it wiggling around and struggling to not make noise.

The rubbery hero chuckled and started mercilessly mashing the buttons and the tv remote melted into a puddle of goo in his hand. It jiggled around with sounds of muffled laughter in his palm and eventually shifted back into the original form of a teenager with black hair. He looked over at Plastic Man with mild annoyance in his dark eyes.

“Dad, do you have to do that every time we play this game?”

Plastic Man came a little closer and hugged Luke while teenager tried to wrestle his way out of his dad’s encasing hug.

“C’mon, Dad! I’m not a little kid anymore, I’m already seventeen!”

Plastic Man tightened his embrace and pulled his son closer. There was a slight tremor in his voice that echoed through the quiet living room.

“Are you alright, Lukie?”

Luke stopped trying to escape his dad’s embrace and slowly hugged him back.

“Yeah Dad, I’m all right.”

Plastic Man let out a breath that sounded like he had been holding in it since the incident that happened during his patrol with Captain Marvel.

“Thank goodness, I was worried when I saw you in the crowd earlier.”

Luke hesitantly patted his dad’s back and replied with a bit of teasing tone in his voice.

“What? You think I can’t take care of myself even though I inherited your ridiculous powers?”

Plastic Man chuckled and released Luke from his embrace. He looked his son over with a fond smile and ruffled his black hair.

“Hey, just cause you got my powers doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to worry about my son.”

Luke sighed and sat down on the couch with Plastic Man. After a moment, the teenager turned to his dad and asked a question.

“Who was that hero with you? The one in the red suit with a lightening bolt on his chest?”

A warm smile appeared on the elastic hero’s face as he answered his son.

“That was Captain Marvel.”

“How old is he?”

Plastic Man raised an eyebrow.

“That’s a weirdly specific question, Luke.”

Luke narrowed his eyes at his dad trying to deflect the question.

“Well, you had a weirdly specific nickname for him.”

Plastic Man’s goggles widened a little and he awkwardly shifted away and into the kitchen and started digging around for any leftovers, obviously trying to avoid the conversation. Luke got off the couch and followed the rubbery hero into the kitchen and stared at him with his arms crossed.

“Answer the question, Dad.”

“Look Luke,” Plastic Man turned around and looked at his son, “I can’t tell you anything that’s related to someone’s secret identity, you know that.”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

“So, this Captain Marvel’s age is related to his secret identity, huh? What is he, a little kid or something?”

Plastic Man turned away and looked back in the fridge, ignoring Luke’s deduction. However, the teenager’s mouth opened in shock at his father’s silence.

“No, are you kidding me?”

Plastic Man eventually closed the refrigerator and turned to look at his son.

“Lukie, you trust me don’t you?”

A troubled look came over Luke’s face and an uncomfortable silence took over the kitchen. The teenager looked down at the tiled floor and gripped the side of his pant leg. The denim material wrinkled under the strength of Luke’s grasp.

After a few tense seconds of silence, the teenager finally answered his dad’s question.

“I do trust you, Dad.”

Plastic Man walked over until he was standing in front of his son. He gently touched Luke’s shoulder and the teenager didn’t refuse the affectionate gesture. 

“You asked me to keep your promise, Lukie. Well, the same goes for Captain Marvel. You’ll just have to trust me.”

The two had still been working on rebuilding their relationship since Plastic Man re-entered Luke’s life and there were still some barriers that needed to be overcome. The father and son had made progress, bit by bit, but there were times when they didn’t know how close or far apart they really were.

Luke watched as his dad went back over to the fridge and started pulling out left-overs for dinner. In the teenager’s mind, a determined voice echoed.

“Sorry Dad, I’m not going to stop until I know who this Captain Marvel person really is.”  
———————————————————————————————————————  
The next day on the Watchtower, Plastic Man searched around for Captain Marvel to check and see how the kid was doing after their patrol. He seemed down ever since the incident with the building and not knowing whether a particular civilian survived the destruction.

As he approached one of the viewing areas on the Watchtower, Plastic Man finally spotted Captain Marvel, who was staring at the stars outside the Watchtower.

“Hey, Cap!”

Captain Marvel didn’t seem to hear him so the rubbery hero walked over and tapped the other hero on the shoulder. After a moment, Marvel turned and looked at Plastic Man. The stretchy hero’s usual goofy smile faded when he saw the other hero’s red eyes and slumping shoulders. 

“Oh, kid…Do you need a hug?”

A slow nod from the tired hero was the only answer Plastic Man needed. Since no one else was around, Plastic Man wrapped his arms around Captain Marvel and hugged him tight. After a moment, the crimson-clad hero clung to Plastic Man’s back and tried to not completely break down into tears.

“Are you still thinking about that person, kid?”

Captain Marvel’s voice was muffled against the rubbery hero’s shoulder but Plastic Man heard it.

“Yeah…”

“I told you not worry about that, Billy. He’s probably fine, you just—“

“B-But that’s it,” Captain Marvel stuttered against Plastic Man’s chest and pulled away as new tears sprung out of his eyes, “You keep saying ‘probably’ and I want to know for sure…I just can’t stop thinking about that person and if I didn’t save him in time.”

Plastic Man’s mind was screaming at him while his heart felt like it was being tugged in two different directions and close to a breaking point. And looking at Captain Marvel’s distressed face was only making the feelings inside grow more unbearable. 

After a moment, the elastic hero raised a hand and gripped the grieving hero’s shoulder. Captain Marvel inhaled shakily and seemed to wait for Plastic Man to speak.

“You didn’t fail to save him, kid. I know for a fact he’s fine because…”

The rubbery hero stopped mid-sentence and seriously considered doing something that would have fixed the entire situation but…he made a promise to his son and with how shaky their relationship was right now, he needed to keep it.

“Plas?”

Plastic Man shook himself and centered his attention back on Captain Marvel, who was still waiting for him to finish.

“Because, you’re an amazing hero, kid. I saw you that day and you didn’t hesitate to get everyone away from the building as it was tumbling down. Not just anyone can do that, I know for a fact Green Arrow couldn’t stop that building. Have you seen him lifting buildings during training?”

Captain Marvel let out a soft chuckle and Plastic Man gave the tired hero another comforting hug.

“Stop worrying, kid. You did your best and it saved all those people, including this person you’ve been thinking about.”

“Really, Plas? You mean it?”

Plastic Man tightened his embrace around Captain Marvel.

“Yeah, Billy. I mean every word.”

Captain Marvel let out a deep exhale and it sounded like he was finally letting go of all his worries. The crimson hero finally seemed to be standing tall again and despite his eyes still looking exhausted, there was a hint of peace hidden in them. As he walked away, Plastic Man stayed rooted to the spot and wanted nothing more than to be sucked out into the cold, inhabitable space outside the Watchtower. 

The fact that he lied to a kid that trusted him weighed down on the rubbery hero’s heart and he wanted to run after Captain Marvel and tell him the truth but…Luke’s promise was also important and Plastic Man needed to be a father that his son could look up to, despite how long they had been apart. In the end, Plastic Man walked away in the other direction, hating himself to his very core.  
———————————————————————————————————————  
The day after his father denied giving his son any information about Captain Marvel, Luke’s first course of action was to figure out exactly the kind of person this crimson hero really was. After a rushed breakfast, the teenager went into the bathroom with his mind running over everything he needed to do to make sure this mission was a success.

The teenager was still fairly new to shapeshifting into other people, but with some reference material, a magazine he had sitting around, he could manage to duplicate a person’s basic features. He decided on disguising himself as a man that was the complete opposite as his normal appearance. That meant red hair, a slight pudgy body, and maybe some facial hair as well.

Luke stared at the mirror as he focused on changing his face and kept his mind trained on keeping his features from shifting back to his normal appearance. His face become rounder and fake hair popped out of his pores, looking a slightly off but from a distance didn’t look too bad. His usually flat stomach started to expand and looked like he eat a turkey whole, and changed his pitch-black hair into a bright shade of red. He looked all over his disguise for anything that might look unusual but after he studied each part and adjusted in a few spots, he didn’t even recognize himself. Luke left the bathroom and luckily, Plastic Man was up at the Watchtower so he was able to leave the house without his dad intervening and asking what he was up to.

The disguised teenager walked out of the house and tried to focus on keeping his new appearance consistent. It was easy to get distracted and accidentally change back into his original look so he needed to stay concentrated if this was going to work. As started walking down the sidewalk, Luke happened to spot the crimson hero he was searching for and saw that he was patrolling again today.

A hand in Luke’s pockets caught the teenager’s attention and he realized that a pickpocket had just stolen his wallet. That wasn’t part of the plan but he might as well roll with it. In a faked panicked voice, Luke called out to Captain Marvel who was on the sidewalk just ahead of where the thief was running to.

“Hey, Captain Marvel! That man stole my wallet!”

Captain Marvel stopped in his tracks and turned back around to apprehend the thief. The criminal panicked, not realizing he had just committed a crime in front of a nearby hero and pathetically handed it back to the crimson hero and ran away like his life depended on it. Luke watched as Captain Marvel looked directly at him and slowly walked over to return the stolen wallet. His footsteps seemed heavy and the blank look on the hero face’s made it harder for Luke to read what was going on in Captain Marvel’s mind. 

As he finally approached the disguised teenager, a far-away look in Captain Marvel’s eyes caught Luke off-guard and he could only stare. The hero held out the wallet, waiting for him to take it back. After a moment of fumbling around, Luke took the wallet from Captain Marvel and waited for the hero to say something, anything. Instead, Captain Marvel just silently nodded and headed back the way he came from.  
——————————————————————————————————————  
That same night, Luke was sitting on the couch at home, pondering his encounter when Plastic Man came home a few hours later. The teenager noticed how his dad was slouching over and looking like a tremendous amount of weight was weighing on his shoulders.

“You doing all right, Dad?”

Plastic Man looked up from the floor and tried to smile at Luke but it looked forced.

“Me? I’m fine, but one of my coworkers isn’t.”

Luke put down the video game controller he was holding and turned to look at his dad.

“Is it Captain Marvel you’re thinking about?”

Plastic Man straightened up a little bit at the mention of Captain Marvel and stared at Luke.

“Why would you guess I’m worrying about Captain Marvel?”

Luke shrugged.

“Because you both dealt with that building crumbling and I’m guessing he’s a fairly new hero, considering you called him ‘kid’.”

“Luke, if you’re trying to get me to tell you Captain Marvel’s secret identity, it’s not happening.”

Luke smirked a little at his dad’s ability to read his intentions so clearly.

“You can’t blame me for trying, Dad.”

Plastic Man went into the kitchen to grab some food and Luke turned back to his vide game with an even more determined look on his face. In his mind, he started thinking of another strategy for figuring out Captain Marvel’s identity. Perhaps looking like someone closer to Captain Marvel’s potential age range might produce a different result?  
—————————————————————————————————————  
The next time Luke went out, he decided on seeing whether Captain Marvel reacted differently around a kid. It wasn’t too hard to shift back into a kid again considering all the teenager had to do was think back to his childhood and remember the few happy memories he had.

When he opened his eyes again, Luke realized just how much it sucked being a kid, height-wise anyway. He couldn’t even see the mirror until he stood on top of the toilet seat. Seeing his reflection made the teenager pause and he could recall how he used to wish he could just grow up already.

After he finished making sure he could keep the form of his former childhood self, Luke left the bathroom and once again was lucky that his dad wasn’t hanging out in the house. He walked as quickly as his little legs would let him and left the house to see if Captain Marvel happened to be patrolling the same area again today.

As Luke walked onto the sidewalk, he happened to spot Captain Marvel walking around the same spot that the office building had collapsed. He seemed…tired and desperate. Luke ran after the now-towering hero and felt his small legs starting to get exhausted after only a few minutes of running. Geez, how did kids survive without adults carrying them everywhere? Luke called out in a small, prepubescent child voice.

“Captain Marvel!”

The crimson-clad hero stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at Luke, who was currently the size of a five year boy. An almost melancholy look appeared in Captain Marvel’s eyes as he looked down at Luke and the hero knelt down to be at eye-level.

“What’s wrong, kid? Are you lost?”

Luke decided to roll with the idea of being a lost child and nodded his head. Captain Marvel stood back up and offered his hand to Luke and the disguised teenager held it as best he could with smaller hands.

“Did you lose your parents somewhere,…?”

Luke realized that Captain Marvel was asking for his name so he used one that he came up with spur of the moment.

“Patrick, my name’s Patrick. No, I didn’t lose my mom and dad.”

“Then what happened?”

“I was playing in my front yard and then I ran after a ball and then couldn’t find my house.”

Luke looked up at Captain Marvel and tried his best at those puppy-eyes that kids always do to get their way.

“Will you help me get home?”

Captain Marvel didn’t seem that affected by Luke’s attempts at childlike dependency and continued walking.

“Well, I’m a part of the Justice League and I have to continue patrolling but,” Captain Marvel paused and Luke anxiously waited for the hero to continue, thinking this might finally be his chance to get some information about his secret identity, “I can at least take you to the police station and they can help you get home. Superman wanted me to keep an eye this area so I can at least get you somewhere safe.”

Luke looked down at the sidewalk and internally swore to himself. He could have run off and left Captain Marvel in the dust but then the hero would probably run after him and perhaps spot him using his powers. Then, his dad would have some explaining to do and Luke’s existence would be out in the open…Which is exactly what the teenager didn’t want to happen.

After a few more minutes of walking, Captain Marvel stopped in front of the police station and Luke looked up at the crimson-clad hero. Marvel glanced down at Luke and placed one of his hands on Luke’s back and gently pushed him towards the entrance of the station. Luke stumbled and managed to not trip only to turn around and see Captain Marvel fly away in only seconds.

The disguised teenager sighed and headed into the alleyway next to the police station to shift back into his original form. He walked out and decided to head home after yet another failed attempt to figure out who Captain Marvel was behind the superhero persona or why his dad was so fond of him.  
———————————————————————————————————————  
The next day, Luke wandered out of the house and decided he was done trying to figure out who Captain Marvel really was. If disguising himself wasn’t going to get results, then what was the point of trying? Maybe Captain Marvel just wasn’t the type of person you could immediately get a read on.

Interrupting the teenager’s thoughts, a voice shouted behind Luke and startled him.

“You!”

Luke froze and spun around to see Captain Marvel running towards him. The teenager was growing more and more nervous as the huge hero got closer and closer and debated running away, but when he saw the relieved look on Captain Marvel’s face, he couldn’t move.

As the huge hero came to a stop in front of Luke and leaned over to catch his breath, the teenager stood there awkwardly and wondered what made Captain Marvel run over so quickly. After a few more seconds of watching the crimson-clad hero, the teenager cleared his throat.

“Can I help you, Captain Marvel?”

Marvel seemed to finally catch his breath and stood back up.

“I saw you, the day that the office building collapsed…”

Luke’s breath caught in his throat and he stared at Captain Marvel as he continued.

“I was worried when I didn’t see you in the crowd getting medical attention and I thought…Well, I thought I failed to save you. But, I found you!”

A beaming smile appeared on Captain Marvel’s face and Luke couldn’t do anything but stare at the almost childlike relief that appeared on the hero’s face. It was such a stark contrast to the Captain Marvel he had run into twice before.

After a moment, Luke returned the smile in his own way and Captain Marvel lightly punched the teenager in the arm, which reminded Luke of his dad and the teenager decided to do something he never thought he would. Captain Marvel had turned to leave but the teenager’s voice stopped him.

“Hey, Cap?”

Captain Marvel looked back at Luke.

“Yes?”

“Do you know Plastic Man?”

Another bright smile appeared on the hero’s face.

“Yeah, I do.”

Luke gestured for Captain Marvel to follow him into a nearby alleyway. The hero followed after him and watched as Luke turned back to him. The teenager looked a little unsure of himself but if he was right about this, then everything would click into place.

“That day the building collapsed, I managed to get away just in time but I didn’t expect you to be that worried about me, Cap. So, I want to show what I did.”

Luke stretched his limbs out into almost noodle-like appendages and waved them around. He even went as far as to condense down into a spring and show off how bouncy his body could become. As he shifted back into his original form, Captain Marvel’s jaw dropped and he stared at the teenager in shock. His voice came out in a nearly excited shriek as he processed what he was seeing in front of him.

“You’re Plastic Man’s son!?

Luke nodded with a playful smirk on his face.

“And you’re a kid, aren’t you?”

Captain Marvel hesitated for a moment, surprised by Luke’s personal question but after a few seconds he nodded. Taking a deep breath, the crimson-clad hero titled his head back and yelled a single word to the clouds above.

“SHAZAM!”

A lightening bolt shot down from the sky above and struck Captain Marvel squarely in the chest, causing a think fog to appear around the hero and hiding him from sight. Luke panicked for a moment but then saw a small kid with black hair walk towards him. He couldn’t help but stare at the lanky boy standing there in front of him with a hand outstretched, wanting to shake hands. Luke gripped it and the alter-ego of Captain Marvel beamed up at him.

“My name’s Billy Batson.”

The teenager smiled down at Billy and shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Billy. I’m Luke, Luke O’Brian.”

The two boys stood there in the alleyway for a few more moments before Luke asked Billy a question.

“You want to come over to my place? Hang out for a bit?”

Billy feverishly nodded his head and followed Luke, seeming like his old self for the first time since the incident.  
———————————————————————————————————————  
Epilogue:

Plastic Man opened the door to his house and heard the background noise of video games in the living room. He felt a soft smile work its way onto his face and he looked forward to having some quiet time with his son. However, a familiar voice interrupted the rubbery hero’s thoughts.

“No fair, Luke! You didn’t tell me about the combos!”

Plastic Man’s mind screeched to a halt and he ran into the living room. His feet skidded across the floor and he nearly fell over as he entered the living room. The elastic hero’s eyes widened as he took in the scene in front of him:

Luke was sitting on the couch with a controller in his hand while Billy, also holding a controller, was sitting beside him and watching as the teenager showed him which buttons to press. The two boys were smiling and laughing, together, in the same room. When did this happen?

Plastic Man cleared his throat and the two boys turned to look at him simultaneously. In singular moment when both of them were staring at him, the elastic hero swore that they looked related and could pass off as cousins. That thought caused a strange warmth to spread through Plastic Man’s chest and he wasn’t sure how to process it.

Billy waved at Plastic Man with a beaming grin while Luke smirked at his dad’s flabbergasted face.

“Hey, Plas!”

Plastic Man’s mind was still reeling as he took in the fact both Billy and Luke were sitting in the same room, playing video games. After a moment of trying to get his mouth to remember how words worked, he finally spoke.

“H-Hey, Billy…H-how did—“

Billy interrupted the rubbery hero and patted Luke’s shoulder.

“How come you never told me you had a son, Plas?”

Plastic Man floundered around for moment as he tried to answer.

“W-Well, I didn’t want to reveal your secret identity to just anyone, and Lukie over here doesn’t like his dad bragging about his amazing son.”

Luke looked annoyed at his dad using that embarrassing nickname and Billy couldn’t help but chuckle at the frustrated look on the teenager’s face. Plastic Man looked down at the floor and guiltily twisted his fingers around, looking unsure of how to begin to apologize. He hesitated for a few seconds, and then spoke in a quiet voice.

“Billy, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Luke. You were so worried about not saving someone and I should have told you about him…Luke,” Plastic Man glanced up from the floor and looked at his son, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Billy sooner. He asked me to keep his secret and I wanted to tell you, believe me, I want to brag about that kid to everyone but I had to keep my promise, the ones I made with both of you boys.”

Luke was about to speak but Billy jumping off the couch interrupted him and the teenager watched as the kid walked over towards Plastic Man. Billy looked up at the rubbery hero with a warm smile and wrapped his arms around him.

“I forgive you, Plas. You kept your promises, and that makes you a great friend and a great dad.”

Plastic Man eyes started tearing up after hearing that little statement from Billy and he tightly hugged the kid back.

Luke couldn’t stop the warmth that was spreading through his chest as he watched the scene playing out in front of him. Plastic Man glanced over at his son and stretched one of his arms over towards Luke, wrapped it around him like a rope, and dragged him over to join in on the group hug. The teenager tried to act like this whole situation was embarrassing but seeing Billy look up at him with one of those beaming grins broke down his tough guy act. He hugged both his father and Billy back with a small but genuine smile on his face.The three stayed in the group hug for a few more moments and Plastic Man pulled the two boys a little closer and smiled one of his big, goofy grins.

“Either way, I’m glad you two met each other. I was actually hoping to have you two meet sometime. Not exactly how I imagined it going but hey, now you two know each other!”  
Luke grinned over at Billy and winked.

“Hey, Billy.”

The kid titled his head upwards to look at Luke.

“Yeah, Luke?”

“Want to do something irresponsible that will definitely get us in trouble?”

Billy laughed and tightly squeezed Luke’s hand.

“Yeah!”

Plastic Man panicked and chased after the boys as they ran out the front door.

“I changed my mind! You boys get back here before you do something that’ll get you arrested, or so help me!”

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> This update took a little longer than intended but I hope you all enjoyed giving it a read. Hopefully, with my schedule being a bit more free I will be able to update more frequently and give you all more content of my two favorite dorks in the League. Any kudos or comments you drop absolutely make my day!


End file.
